Three teens sue Newark Bears for booting them from stadium for refusing to stand during 'God Bless America'

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerNewark Bears fans cheer during a game a 2007 Championship Series game at Riverfront Stadium, in this Star-Ledger file photo.

NEWARK -- It is a matter of etiquette and, since the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks eight years ago Friday, almost a test of one's patriotism.

When "God Bless America" blares from the loudspeakers at ballgames, fans rise from their seats. At Newark's Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium, woe to the fan whose fanny remains planted.

In a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Newark, three Millburn High School students contend Newark Bears president and co-owner Thomas Cetnar berated them, cursed at them and then booted them from the ballpark after they failed to stand for the song during the seventh-inning stretch.

"Nobody sits during the singing of 'God Bless America' in my stadium,'" Cetnar bellowed during the June 29 incident, according to the suit. "Now the get the (expletive) out of here."

The teens -- Millburn High seniors Bryce Gadye and Nilkumar Patel, both 17, and junior Shaan Mohammad Khan, 16 -- argue the treatment and their ejection violated their rights under the Constitution, along with federal and state public accommodation laws and state law against discrimination. They're seeking unspecified damages.

"Part of being an American is respecting the wish of others, and that includes letting people sit. That's American," said Ross Gadye, Bryce Gadye's father and an attorney who filed the suit on the teens' behalf.

Repeated calls to Cetnar and James Wankmiller, another member of the ownership group, were not returned today.

If recent history is any example, the youths could have a case. In July, a federal judge in New York signed a settlement between the Yankees and a fan who'd been ejected from the old Yankee Stadium by security -- a pair of off-duty police officers -- because he insisted on walking to the bathroom during the famed Kate Smith rendition of the song.

Under the settlement, the Yankees agreed to scrap a policy that prohibited movement while the song played. It was in the weeks after 9/11 that the Yankees began playing "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch. The practice was soon emulated at ballparks across the country, though many teams have dropped it since then.

Ed Barocas, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said the Newark Bears, like the Yankees last year, clearly crossed a line.

"They should not have been ejected," said Barocas, whose groups is not involved in the suit. "They have the right to choose not to participate in somebody else's beliefs."

Ross Gadye said his son and the teen's friends were not disruptive at any time during the evening game, in which the Bears played the South Maryland Blue Crabs. At one point, they were given permission by stadium staff to move from their seats to empty seats behind home plate.

In the fifth inning, Bryce Gadye and Patel were selected to take part in a contest on the field, winning four tickets to a future Bears game. Things went awry in the seventh, according to the suit, when Cetnar noticed the teens sitting during "God Bless America" and stormed over.

When Bryce Gadye told Cetnar he had a right to remain seated, the suit said, the co-owner told them they were underage and that he "could do whatever he wanted with them."

He then instructed two security officers to lead them out, the lawsuit contends. The confrontation created a spectacle that "humiliated" the teens, the suit said.

"I couldn't believe it," Ross Gadye said, recounting his reaction when his son told him what had happened. "These kids are good kids,"

The father met the next month with general manager Mark Skeels and Wankmiller, the co-owner, who offered an apology and free tickets. But the teens were upset Cetnar was not at the meeting and that he never apologized, Ross Gadye said. After several weeks without a resolution, the youths decided to file the lawsuit.

Skeels said today he knew of the incident but had not yet reviewed the lawsuit. He declined to comment.